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  • He's worth over eleven billion dollars.

  • He's creating game-changing businesses like PayPal, Tesla Motors, and SpaceX.

  • He's the closest thing we have to real-life Iron Man.

  • He's Elon Musk, and here are his 10 rules for success.

  • That third failure in a row...

  • Did you think: I need to pack this in?

  • Never.

  • Why not?

  • I don't ever give up. I have to be that dead or completely incapacitated.

  • Really liking what you do-- Whatever area that you get into...

  • Given that-- even if you're the best the best, there's always a chance of failure.

  • So, I think it's important that you really like whatever you're doing.

  • If you don't like it... life is too short.

  • If you like what you're doing, you think about it even when you're not working.

  • I mean it'll just... it's something that your mind is drawn to.

  • Um, and...and if you don't like it, you just really can't make it work, I think.

  • So many people try to talk me out of starting our own company, it was crazy.

  • One good friend of mine, collected a whole series of videos of rocket blowing up and made me watch those.

  • He's just didn't want me to lose all my money.

  • We're doing these things that seem unlikely to succeed, and we've been fortunate, and at least thus far, they have succeeded.

  • Now is the time to take risk, you don't have kids.

  • As you get older, your obligations increase.

  • So you... and once you have a family you start taking risk not just for yourself, but for your family as well.

  • it gets much harder to do things that might not work out.

  • Umm, so now is the time to do that, before you have those obligations.

  • So I would encourage you to take risks now, do something bold! You wont regret it.

  • How did you figure you were gonna start a car company and be successful at it.

  • Well, I didn't really think Tesla would be successful. I thought we'd most likely fail.

  • But I thought that, uh, we at least could address the false perception that people had, that an electric car had to be ugly and slow and boring, like a golf cart.

  • But you say you didn't expect the company be successful?

  • Then why try?

  • If something's important enough, you should try even if the probable outcome is failure.

  • We focus on signal over noise.

  • A lot of companies get confused, they spend money on things that don't actually make the product better.

  • For example, at Tesla, we've never spent any money on advertising.

  • Put all the money into R&D and manufacturing and design to try to make the car as good as possible.

  • I think that's the way to go.

  • For any given company just keep thinking about, "Are these efforts that people are expecting? Are they resulting in a better product or service?"

  • And if they're not, stop those efforts.

  • When I interview someone to work at the companies, I ask them to tell me about the problems they worked on and how they solved them.

  • And if someone was really the person that solved it, they'll be able to answer multiple levels,

  • they'll be able to go down to the brass tacks and if they weren't they'll get stuck.

  • And then you can say, Oh, this person was not really the person who solved it.

  • Because anyone who struggles hard with a problem never forgets it.

  • If you're creating a company or if you're joining a company,

  • the most important thing is to attract great people.

  • So either join a group that's amazing, that you really respect, or if you're building a company you've gotta gather great people.

  • I mean all a company is a group of people that have gathered together to create a product or service.

  • And so depending upon how talented and hard-working that group is, and the degree to which they're focused cohesively in a good direction,

  • that will determine the success the company.

  • So, do everything you can to gather great people, if you're creating company.

  • You gotta make sure that whatever you're doing is a great product or service, it has to be really great.

  • And I go back to what I was saying earlier, where, if you're a new company...

  • I mean unless it's like some new industry or or new market that--

  • if it's an untapped market, then, you have more ability to...

  • The standard is lower for your product or service.

  • But if you're entering anything where there's existing market place against large, entrenched competitors,

  • then your product or service needs to be much better than theirs.

  • It can't be a little bit better because then you put yourself in the shoes of the consumer,

  • and they say, "Why would you buy it?" as a consumer.

  • You're always gonna buy the trusted brand, unless there's a big difference.

  • So, a lot of times, you know, an entrepreneur will come up with something which is only slightly better,

  • and it's not-- it can't just be slightly better, it's got to be a lot better.

  • Depending on how well you wanna do, and particularly if you're starting a company, you need to work super hard.

  • So, what does "super hard" mean?

  • Well, when my brother and I were starting our first company,

  • instead of getting an apartment we just rented a small office, and we slept on the couch.

  • Uh, and we showered at the YMCA, and we were so hard up we had one computer,

  • so the website was up during the day, and I was coding at night, seven days a week, all the time.

  • And, and I sort of briefly had a girlfriend in that period and in order to be with me, she had to sleep in the office.

  • so, work hard like, I mean, every waking hour, that's the thing I would say if you're particularly starting a company.

  • Um, and I mean, if you do the simple maths, say like, if somebody else is working 50 hours, and you're working 100...

  • You'll get twice as much done in the course of a year as the other company.

  • Thank you guys so much for watching. I'll see you soon.

He's worth over eleven billion dollars.

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